Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Crying and Cookies

Our home has been filled with all of the traditional holiday festivities already and I just can't get enough of it. I hate hate hate the freezing cold weather but as cold as it is, I remind myself that I could be in New England right now and it'd probably be way worse! That always makes me feel better! One of the things we've done that I'm sure most of you've all been doing as well is decorating the Christmas tree. Ours was a little bit more chaotic than the sweet way you'd imagine two little boys placing shiny little things gently on the branches. In fact, our tree right now is a very sore sight to see and wouldn't normally be something I'd allow to be displayed in our house...but I think as I raise two very active little boys I'm beginning to loosen up a little and let things be as they are. Good lesson to be learned I suppose.

Well, I'll give you a little insight into how the whole thing went down. We had planned to decorate the tree one night when Eric got home from work but as duty calls, he had to stay late. Once he got home we decided to just put the tree together (yes, it's a fake one in the attic) and save the whole decorating process for a few days later when he would be home earlier. Once that day came around, Eric had to work late again so I decided I was sick of having boxes or ornaments and ribbons lying around asking to be rummaged through by the boys and decided to attempt to do it with them on my own. Big mistake that was! Owen kinda got into the process but was a little protective of the tree. He wouldn't let Mason anywhere near it...and go figure, All Mase wanted to do was rip that tree to shreds. He tried everything he could to pull every ornament, ribbon, light and bell off that tree and when he was told "No!" or pulled away it was the most obnoxious and yet extremely heartbreaking cry you've ever seen. Not to mention the fact that Owen was so mad he kept pushing him away which made things oh so much better...or not at all. But anyways, after about a half hour of refereeing the two of them I realized Mason had done enough crying and Owen had done enough pushing that it was best to call it a night. Off to bed they went and since then our tree has been a complete disaster. Mason has continued his love of ripping apart the tree which led me to keep ornaments on only the very top which he can't reach, and the ribbon strung around the bottom half has been unwrapped and ran through the house with the other end still attached to the tree. It's awful looking...and yet I leave it because I've come to realize that no matter how many times I string everything back up to perfection, it's inevitably going to be undone again so I gave up and am beginning to enjoy the sad looking tree I stare at everyday. It reminds me how crazy and funny those brothers can be when they get going and I don't mind so much anymore.

Owen playing with an ornament and Mase...crying.

Our tree now

Among some of the other holiday festivities we've been partaking in are Christmas shopping until midnight, reading books about Santa, changing the snowflake in the pockets of our December countdown calender, enjoying roasted marshmallows from fires that Eric's building as if he's competing for a prize, and baking Christmas cookies! Yesterday my friend Lindsey had posted on facebook that she and her son Kyle were baking all kinds of cookies. Well, that's all it took was for me to read that and then it was off to the store to buy our own ingredients. Owen requested oatmeal cookies that Nana always makes so I looked it up in my little homemade recipe box from Mom. We set up all our stuff and the boys helped with each step of the baking. Actually Mason didn't really do much helping, he played with measuring spoons and ate crackers while he watched us. But Owen definitely enjoyed doing all of it. He loved tasting all the ingredients and had a hard time laying off the brown sugar. We had tons of fun and the cookies came out AMAZING. It was my first time making those by myself and I am pretty impressed with how soft and golden they turned out. We left some out for Daddy since he was going to be home late and he even told me they were better than Nana's but I didn't tell you that!! Ma, I'm sure he was just kidding so no worries!

The baking team

Owen mixing the cookie batter

He wanted a silly picture before we baked them

As you can see we've been enjoying the holiday season and I hope you're doing the same. If you have yet to indulge in Christmas cookies or sit by a warm fire reading books then allow yourself some time to do it, or find some other way to relax and enjoy this time of year. It only comes once!

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About Me

Welcome to The Laundry Room! I'm Lynden. I'm a wife to my high school sweetheart and stay at home mother to three crazy little boys, one sweet as ever baby girl, plus Rocco the puggle. Stop by as often as you like, I'll be here sorting out life...one load at a time!